pale walls of dreams (between myself and all i see)
by donutworry
Summary: They're doomed, probably. He still wants that heartbreak anyway. (BK Secret Santa 2k17 for shayspencer)


Prompt: Bonkai Secret Santa 2017 - Your giftee is shayspencer who prefers Fanfic, Graphic or a Fanmix as a gift. Their special preferences are alone in prison world, high school AU, enemies to lovers.

Warnings: Role reversal of sorts; pre-show/S1/S2 AU; alternative Salvatore backstory to fit the story and bc some things in canon did NOT fit Civil War era customs; bg DE; KC and SK if you squint; dark themes; abuse; bullying; murder; violence; underage not-quite-smut; dead and dying characters; angsty bullfuckery; mentions of suicide; anachronistic storytelling so b-k = past, BxK = present (s1/2 AU stuff); de-aged Kai (b. 1991)

AN: This was written for BK Secret Santa and the rough has been up on Tumblr for about a week now. This version is a bit more polished and slightly extended. Still unbetaed so be unsurprised at mistakes. The title is from John Gardner's "Grendel" - I mention this often, but it's my favest book, check it out sometime. My giftee also ships delena, klaroline, and steferine, so there will be hints (or bricks) thrown at you for all of those. It was a little harder to write bc I have at least one fic for each of their preferred topics, but hopefully this is enjoyable. Jason's face claim is Paul Rudd for me, but tell me who you imagine!

* * *

b-k

Grams makes her put on her nice dress, the one reserved for special occasions at church. It's pretty, yellow and red, and super fluttery - it makes Bonnie feel like a princess - but it's also too layered and itchy for the muggy weather. The AC in the old courthouse is down, and the windows are open while electric fans whir. The relief is transient when the rotating air cools her form. Bonnie, in all her seven year old discomfort, feels oppressed. Wearing so many layers of cotton and gauze in such heat is probably against the law. She'll ask Judge Kincannon.

But Grams had been stern and left no room for argument when she woke Bonnie early to braid her hair and get her dressed, so Bonnie suffers in silence. The older Bennett woman seems anxious, looking at her watch repeatedly as they wait for someone to arrive.

Truthfully, Bonnie is confused. They arrived nearly an hour ago and after speaking briefly with Old Sheriff Wilson and Mrs. Forbes, who quickly disappeared, Grams told her she would make a new friend soon. It was exciting news. But it's been an hour and she's bored.

Her legs kick the air in patterns. Left, right, left, right. The swinging makes them feel heavy and cold, like metal. Bonnie is made of steel, like Superman. She bet she could be a hero like him too, save lots of people and everyone would love her like they love him.

"Bonnie! Bonnie!" the crowd cheers in her mind. Her imagination is distracting, to the point she misses when Grams stands up. She doesn't miss the sharp swat on her shoulder or the side-eye from her Grams as she hops to attention. Bonnie smooths her dress out and clasps her hands behind her back like they teach in school, and smiles pretty. Her knew friend must be coming!

Mrs. Forbes is back, this time without Old Sheriff Wilson. Bonnie can't really see him at first, because he's half hidden behind Mrs. Forbes' legs, but then the police officer comes to a stop and Bonnie can see the little bruised hand gripping at her belt loop.

"Come on, honey," Mrs. Forbes coaxes. It's the same voice she uses at sleepovers, when it's time Caroline, Bonnie, and Elena to settle down into bed. Blue-grey eyes peek out out from behind her, small face as bruised as the knuckles. The other little person is a boy, smaller than even her. Bonnie thinks he must run around a lot, if he has so many scrapes. Grams is always yelling at her not to run for fear of getting hurt.

The boy glances between her and Grams then retreats back behind Mrs. Forbes.

"No, no, Malachai," the blonde officer states. "This is Miss Sheila Bennett, your foster mother. You'll be staying with her now."

She moves herself so that she's standing behind the boy, her hands on his shoulders and patting soothingly. Bonnie can see the sling that holds his left arm and the patch of gauze taped to his head. His hair is buzzed short, to the point where she can see a fresh scar zigzagging across the top of his head. It takes her by surprise and she can't stop the tumble of words from leaving her mouth.

"What happened to you?" the question sounds almost accusatory, even to her own ears and she flinches at herself even before Grams swats her again. The boy grimaces as well, looking down as Grams tells her to apologize. He swallowing hard and he looks like he's biting back tears. Bonnie is instantly apologetic.

She steps forward and tries to take his good hand, but he pulls it away from her. Bonnie doesn't pursue it.

"I'm sorry," she says. "I didn't mean it. I'm Bonnie. Want to be my friend?" This time she holds out her hand, leaving the choice up to him. The boy stares at it and takes a breath and reaches out and Bonnie feels hope flutter. And die, when he pushes her hand down gently and walks past her to her Grams.

"May we go now, please ma'am?" He says politely. Grams looks between her and the boy - Malachai Mrs. Forbes had called him - and nods.

"C'mon Bon," in her Grams' voice, she can hear the implied try again later and so she follows dutifully behind, anticipating an awkward drive home. Bonnie's hand burns where Malachai touched her.

b-k

The drive is awkward and so is dinner. Kai (he asked to be called this instead of Malachai) is her age, but where he is polite and obedient towards her Grams, he all but ignores Bonnie when he can. When he must interact with her, his responses are short and he avoids her space like she's diseased. It's infuriating and humiliating. He acts like she isn't there and it makes Bonnie's temper flare. She wants to shake him and scream at him until he looks at her, says or does something. It's the most destructive feeling she's ever felt and it overwhelms her.

By the time her dad arrives to take her home, Bonnie's fists ache from being clenched. She doesn't know why she's so angry. He wasn't even mean - Tyler Lockwood had dumped a bottle of glue on her head once, the meanest thing anyone's ever done to her, and they were friends. She shouldn't be so put out by Kai's non-reactions.

But the anger is still there when she gets ready for bed, when her dad tucks her in, when she goes to sleep. It seeps into her bone marrow, takes over the fresh blood cells that enter her body. It remains when she wakes up the next day.

If Kai doesn't want to be her friend, fine. Bonnie will hate him like no one else has before.

b-k

Maybe he should've tried harder to be her friend. From Miss Sheila's sighs and and heavy looks, Kai knows that she at least thinks he should have. But her perfect little granddaughter looked so pristine in her dress, like some sort of rose, green eyes pricking him like bramble. It was uncomfortable at best. Then she looked at him with something like disgust twisting her pretty face as she asked what happened to him, the likes of which she couldn't possibly fathom...Kai hated her in that moment. He'd never felt so low for what his dad did, never fell victim to self-blame, never thought he could have done anything to prevent it until that question.

What happened to you?

And shit (and he knows better than to use that word around Miss Sheila, he can tell how strict she is) maybe it was. Maybe if he wasn't what he was, maybe if he'd still been of any use to the coven.

What happened to you?

Joshua Parker did. It's not his fault. His dad was crazy.

Kai insists on doing the dishes, but Miss Sheila only allows him to clear the table because of his arm. He wants to help and his arm is healing nicely - it's his head that's killing him - but she hears none of it. Sleep tugs heavy at him and his bad arm is starting to ache real bad along with his headache and he just wants to take his medicine and go to sleep. The faster he finishes his self-designated chores, the sooner he can do that. When he finishes, the older witch shows him where he'll be sleeping and he gets ready for bed without prompt or protest. He doesn't want to cause any trouble.

When his head hits the pillow he decides he'll try once more with Bonnie. He'll apologize for his behavior and they'll be friends and when he starts up at school with her, she'll introduce him to her other friends and he can be himself without any worries about covens or merges or restoring family honor. It will be a fresh start, a new life better than the last. An adventure. Kai likes adventures.

His will start in the morning.

b-k

Joshua's house is a gory mess when Jason finishes his walk through. He's back where he started, the spot where he found his brother attempting to beat his own son to death.

The Supreme feels sick, staring down at the small puddle of his nephew's half-coagulated blood.

He'd felt Melissa go first, then Josette quickly after. It was sudden and felt so violent that Jason doubled over from nausea and pain as he felt his coven members leave him. He'd summoned his Enforcers and the Board of Regents immediately, then ported to his brother's house the second he was able. He'd been too late to save Joey and he'd barely been able to save Kai. Kai, his favorite of his nieces and nephews, whose tiny body felt so light when Jason had scooped him up. If it hadn't been for the boy's shallow breaths and their faint connection, he might have thought his nephew dead like the rest. He can still hear his older brother's mindless, angry rants.

It should have been me, he had screamed. If you weren't an abomination, you could have made it right, he'd yelled at Kai.

Jason scowls at the memory. Josh hadn't ever deserved Kai. Any of his kids, really. His crazy older brother had been right in some respects. Coven leader had once been his birthright, but his own twin had died in a freak accident. Jason and Isla had been the spares.

But Kai was not an abomination and Jason would fight tooth and fucking nail to prove it to anyone who said otherwise.

He peels his eyes away from the browning puddle. Kai is safe now and the Gemini Supreme intends to keep it that way. Joshua is in coven holdings, preparing to be dealt with. Jason hopes he goes crazy trapped alone in the prison world he has ready for him.

For now though, there's an injured little boy that needs him.

BxK

Kai leaves Dr. Flores office with a scowl and a shitty attitude. He hates therapy. He has it every Thursday and it just so happens that this particular Thursday was a day when Bonnie somehow goaded her friends into making a sport of pissing off Kai.

That morning was the summer orientation for juniors and seniors to pick out parking spots, get lockers and schedules, set up lunch accounts, and shit like that. During the assembly, Elena had tripped and spilled her (still fucking uncomfortably hot) coffee on his favorite white Nirvana shirt, then Tyler ran off with his schedule and used it to play keep away with Matt and Caroline, whom Kai was finally able to get it back from - after it had been destroyed. The locker number and combination had been printed on it and following his bad feeling, Kai went to check out his appointed locker - only to find it filled with shaving cream and glitter and opened cans of fucking tuna. Tuna.

Before he left, he'd had to buy his gym clothes, so he replaced his ruined shirt with the one for gym on the way to his car. Where Bonnie had been waiting for him, leaning innocently against the driver's door. Kai scowls at the memory as he heads towards the car now. Sometimes, he really wanted to hurt Bonnie, grip her and drain her of all her untapped magic until she was prostrated at his feet like an empty husk. It's an uncomfortable feeling that sources self-loathing because as often as he wants to strangle her to death, he wants to grab her and do other things too.

And that's unsettling. How is he supposed to handle having a a long-held crush on his foster mother's granddaughter? Who bullies him? It was an laughable. Pathetic.

"What are you doing?" Kai had asked suspiciously in the school parking lot.

"Waiting for you," Bonnie had replied and held out her hand where his parking permit was gripped. "Mrs. Galloway saw you drop this and asked me to give it to you."

Kai took the permit from her and frowned. "Thanks for the locker surprise, by the way. You don't think the janitors have enough to do during the school year?"

He had watched something like chagrin pass quickly over her face before she twisted it into confusion. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Sure," Kai scoffed and Bonnie narrowed her eyes at him, stepping away from his old, but well-tended Camry.

"Whatever, freak," she ended the conversation, walking past him. Over her shoulder, she threw "Have a nice drive to therapy."

It was suspicious then and he'd checked over his ride as thoroughly as he could without being late. But now, arriving back at his car after seeing Dr. Flores, he thinks he might really stab Bonnie next time he sees her.

His front tires are both flat. Looking them over, he sees now that both are missing the air caps and he grits his teeth.

"That fucking bitch," he mutters, getting the stuff from his glove compartment to call Sheila's AAA. "I'm gonna fucking kill her. Fuck it. Inherited murder. This bitch, I can't even."

It takes twenty whole minutes for the tow truck to arrive even though Mystic Fall is the size of a pimple, and Kai has ruminated over Dr. Flores' words about a zillion times and decided that they were bullshit.

"'It's time to make peace with your demons'," he mocks in a high-pitched voice as the truck pulls up beside him. He thinks about teeny, little Bonnie Bennett with her solar bright eyes and scathing tongue and the aches she puts in his chest and loins. Peace. Yeah fucking right.

b-k

He's not able to talk to Bonnie the next day. She has school and he has a doctor's appointment and a meeting with his uncle's lawyer at the police station. The other man is a Gemini witch that Kai vaguely recognizes. He talks to him like he's very slow and Kai doesn't know how to tell him he has a prodigious IQ, that his dad's break down didn't erase it.

Although maybe his head injury did.

The police set up a camera and Kai answers all the questions as best as he can. Getting his head cracked open with bat didn't make him dumber (luckily), but it made that night fuzzy. He can barely remember anything, just the fear and the stink of Joey's pee. Even that memory makes him sad. He misses his brother.

"And where was your mother when you and Joey were hiding in the wardrobe?"

"She was with my dad in the room, trying to get him out. She was asking him to stop. She kept saying 'calm down, Josh,'" Kai answers mechanically. He feels distant. Like he's watching TV, but the TV is his body. His own hands don't look real. The doctor used fancy words for it at the hospital. Trauma dissociation. Kai is dissociating because he suffered trauma.

He answers the rest of the questions like a robot, pretending he's the Terminator. He wants to go home, back to Portland, before May ninth, before his dad hated him.

When it's over, the lawyer thanks him and tells him he's a strong boy. That he should focus on living a good life and that he'll never have to worry his father hurting him again. Kai doesn't want to know. Ever. The camera is off, so the lawyer blesses him and the familiar heat of friendly magic feeds Kai. The feeling wears off soon, but it's enough to remind him of home.

By the time he gets escorted back to Miss Sheila's, it's late and he's started shaking. Kai falls in the older witch's arms like the little boy he is and cries himself to sleep. He never gets to speak with Bonnie.

b-k

Kai doesn't get to apologize the next day either. His head hurts and he's sick from the magic being worked on him at a distance. Sheila explains that his coven leader is severing Kai's connection from the Gemini Coven so that Joshua can't track him that way. It's for his safety, she assures. Kai still feels abandoned.

The boy cries himself to sleep. He never gets to speak with Bonnie.

b-k

The spell, being done safely, takes three days to complete. He can feel his uncle slowly pulling away, the magic that connects their life forces thinning. He knows if he were older, stronger, less injured they could be done in an instant and he wouldn't have to suffer like this. It's painful and sickening on top of his still-healing head and arm. The slow break is painful too - Kai feels abandoned. He was his uncle's favorite nephew, but he doubts his own memories now. Maybe it was all fake. Maybe Kai was always unwanted, by everyone and everything.

He cries himself to sleep. He never gets to speak with Bonnie.

b-k

When the connection breaks, it wakes Kai up. It's very weird, like he's suddenly been dropped into ice water when he's always been warm. He doesn't like it. His back itches, feels colder than the rest of him, and it tastes like magic, so Kai gets up and goes to the restroom.

He has to take his sling off to remove his shirt and he jostles the cast slightly. He hisses quietly, rubbing at it until the sting fades, then he turns and twists so he can see his back.

There's an intricate scar on his upper back. It looks like someone branded his skin with clock cogs, but when he runs his fingers over it, the skin is smooth and cool and sensitive to the touch. Kai shivers, retracting his good hand. The design looks very familiar, like something he might have read before. Kai racks his brain, but he's tired and can't think of it. It's magic related, so maybe he can ask Miss Sheila later.

Curiosity satisfied, Kai puts his shirt in the bathroom hamper and goes back to bed. He feels better now, still a little sad, but he thinks tomorrow, he'll finally be able to set things right with Bonnie.

BxK

Things never really get right between Kai and Bonnie. For that interim between when they first met to when they'd been able to spend more time with each other, the combination of Sheila's initial focus on him and Kai's dismissive attitude had poisoned Bonnie to the idea of building anything fruitful between them. Sheila's refusal to divulge anything magic-related to Bonnie was another point of contention between all three of them. Kai disagreed with Sheila, but kept the secret, and Bonnie, nobody's fool, could tell they were keeping something from her, which led to her jealousy and resentment.

By the time Damon Salvatore swaggers into town with his bourbon and black leather and blacker moods, the animosity between Bonnie and Kai is a well-fed beast. Kai had resigned himself to merely keeping it contained between the two of them.

BxK

Bonnie didn't have a lot a people she cared about. She could count them literally on one hand: Elena, Caroline, her dad, Grams, and in some weird way, stupid Kai Parker. To some extent, she cared for Elena and Caroline's families, but only in that they belonged to her best friends and were a part of them. Her relationship with every single one of her people was complicated.

Elena and Bonnie were closer to each other than Caroline, but they didn't always like each other either. Caroline was too insecure and competitive towards Elena and too dismissive of Bonnie. Sometimes, she preferred other cheerbots to them. Elena wasn't coddling enough for Caroline's ego and too often took Bonnie for granted. Bonnie wasn't trusting enough towards either of them sometimes, because Elena was too selfish and Caroline was too controlling. Blonde and brunette both agreed Bonnie could be too ruthless or too passive with no in-between. They were best friend from childhood though, with a deep platonic love, and any of the girls would kill for the other two. It was a weird tumultuous relationship between the trio. Sometimes they were more enemies than friends.

Rudy cared, but he was a textbook workaholic. If Bonnie kept herself out of trouble and Grams didn't report any misgivings, Rudy Hopkins was content to give his daughter all the freedom and funding in the world. Grams was something weird. She was Bonnie's favorite person in the world, no doubt, but she was always lying to Bonnie about something big - something Kai knew about - and it angered Bonnie. At first, she figured it had something to do with Kai because whatever happened to him had been so bad that the records were sealed and the newspaper clippings had limited information regarding the events. Regardless, Bonnie had some resentment towards both parental figures.

Her dynamic with Kai was the most convoluted. They were arch-nemeses, their antagonism comparable to what Elena had with Jeremy, but worse. Bonnie used to do everything she could to get him kicked out, before she learned the timid truth. Over the years, they've had friendly moments, because he was Grams' foster son and Bonnie was often at her Grams' home when her dad wasn't around. They've seen each other at their worst, in states no one else ever got to witness, not Elena or Caroline, or whoever Kai's Elena-or-Caroline was.

But they were never friends. Bonnie can't be friends with Kai, and he can't be friends with her, and neither one can pinpoint exactly when the opportunity passed. No matter what weaknesses she sees and let's him see, it was only ever between them. Bonnie had her friends and suitors who never stuck around. Kai had his little flings. None of their people were able to get in deep with them the way they got in with each other. So much of Kai occupied Bonnie, because so much of who she was hinged on negating him. It was the same for him, she could tell. There was no room between them for anyone else.

Bonnie cares deeply for very few people and she's not incredibly receptive to strangers. They tended to fuck things up.

BxK

Which is why, that Wednesday night when that bourbon-drinking, wearing-leather-in-the-summer freak shows up on Grams' porch, she hates him immediately. Her mood is already at an all time low. Her Prius is getting a tune-up and because Grams' works an hour outside of Mystic Falls, Kai is the one taking her home from Elena's parents' funeral.

Caroline had offered, but the blonde's own absentee parent had showed up and Bonnie encouraged her to spend time with him. Between Bonnie's AWOL mom and Elena's orphan status, both girls wanted Caroline to soak up her parents' presences.

Kai drives them from the funeral, says nothing to her and expects nothing from her. The air in the old Toyota is somber and Bonnie doesn't even look up from her phone until she hears him mutter "Who the hell is that?"

He's squinting up at the porch, where a dark-haired man is sitting on the porch swing, elbows braced on his knees. Even in the dusky twilight air, his blue eyes are bright and piercing and focused on them. It unnerves her.

"Friend of yours?" Kai inquires. Bonnie wants to snap at him, but his tone is neutral and the question makes sense. She shakes her head in a negative.

"Let's go somewhere else," she tells him. It's unlike her and Kai eyes her and turns off the car. She scowls.

Of all the times for him to be contradictory, it's when a potential murderer is gawking at them from her grandmother's porch. Typical.

She follows him out, sticking close. Bonnie hates Kai on a good day, but he's familiar to her. She trusts him to antagonize her, to annoy her, and hurt her feelings. She also trusts him to keep her safe. This guy? She doesn't trust him at all. He watches them watch him.

"Someone die?" he greets. Bonnie's opinion of him plummets more. Kai just hits him with the quirked brow. The Gilberts were a pretty beloved family - their funeral procession had been huge.

"Yeaaaah," Kai stretches the word out. "Did you know the Gilberts?"

The guy's face does something weird. He appears mildly amused. "I knew some Gilberts, yes."

His expression becomes serious and he stands. "Does Sheila Bennett still live here? I need to ask her something."

Bonnie peeks from where she's been using Kai as a human shield and glares at the guy.

"What do you want with Grams?"

The guy assesses her, tilting his head and letting his eyes wander up and down her form. It's predatory and makes Bonnie feel like meat before Kai rearranges himself between them. He's thumbing at his rings like he tends to do when he's agitated. The guy in leather smirks and answers her as though Kai wasn't there

"Well, little bird, I'm in need of a Bennett witch."

Bonnie almost laughs, but the way Kai's body stiffens in front of her chases off her amusement. She can see his default devious expression shift into something dark and angry. It sends Bonnie's belly to the floor.

With a grunt, the man follows Bonnie's stomach, crashing to his knees and clutching his head. Kai ushers Bonnie into the house, quickly following her.

"You need to leave," Kai snaps at the stranger. "Your kind isn't welcome in this town, let alone at this residence. If you come back, I'll report you to the Council."

With that he slams the door shut, leaving Bonnie with dozens of questions on her tongue.

b-k

About a week after Kai's banishment, his coven leader shows up on Miss Sheila's stoop. She lets him in with a smile, then leaves him and Kai alone with a pitcher of lavender lemonade and a round, blue tin of old lady cookies.

Kai picks at a thread hanging from his shorts. His uncle, feeling just as awkward, chugs two glasses of lemonade then plays with the cup. Man and boy peek at each other and are surprised to catch eyes. Jason makes a funny face and Kai chuckles. The tension eases.

"Kai," the Supreme starts. "You know it's not your fault right? None of this," he waves his hand around, indicates the general this. "Is your fault. Josh was sick and he heard something he didn't like and he snapped."

Kai pulls at thread. "Dad said I was an abomination. He said if I'd been worth anything, the Regents would have let you name me and Jo as your heirs."

Uncle Jason's face gets dark. "That's not really your fault Kai, no matter what anyone says."

"If I was a normal witch and not a siphon, they would have said yes and dad wouldn't have done what he did."

Uncle Jason grimaces. "Fuck Josh," he growls lowly and runs his hand over his face. He looks so much like Kai's dad (Like Jo and Joey. Like Kai.), that it physically hurts Kai to look at him, some odd mixture of fear and longing hitting the child.

"Kai, I want you to listen to me carefully," the Supreme reaches out and clutches his nephew's shoulders. The hold is firm and gentle and Kai basks in his uncle's warmth.

"The Regents gave a conditional no. They wanted you to go through some intense training before naming you a prospective heir. Your dad was for it, but I vetoed the option."

At Kai's dismayed look, Jason wiggled his fingers under the boy's chin and smiles when Kai squirms.

"The training is very dangerous and an extremely outdated and prejudiced practice. The point is to overload a siphon with so much magic they absorb it permanently. It doesn't work. Most siphons die, slowly and painfully, because the spell leaves them open to all kinds of magical backlash, the constant influx of which causes deformities and madness. Do you understand? You would have been tortured to death by your own family.

"Trust me Kai, none of this is on you. Josh was sick. He was willing to let you go through torture and very likely die just for the prospect of being named heir."

Jason ruffles Kai's dark hair. "You think I would've let that happen to my favorite nephew?"

Kai shakes his head. He feels happy and sad and angry and warm. He used to always wish to himself that Jason had been his dad. The thought used to fill him with guilt, but now Kai utters it without any thought.

Jason looks sad. "Me too," he mutters. "But only if I just got you. No merge to lose you to."

Kai feels...a lot. He launches himself at his uncle, who grunts, but hugs the kid. He pretends not to notice Kai's sobs.

Jason strokes his back and stands, walking around and letting Kai cling to him. It's embarrassing. Kai's eight, a smart and mature third-grader, not a baby. But he feels safe for the first time in months, so Kai lets the embarrassment go.

"No matter what, Kai, you've got me okay?" the Supreme rubs his back, where the intricate pattern adorns Kai's skin. "This means you're safe. From the coven, the Regents, your dad. But you have me, whenever you need me, okay? Not just as your Supreme, but as your family. I love you, kid."

Kai holds onto those last four words like a lifeline.

BxK

Bonnie screeches like a damn banshee when she's angry and Kai's tight-lipped disposition has her incensed. His ears are fucking ringing like bells by the time Sheila slips through the front door and takes control of the situation.

"Sit your behind down," she calls after Kai when he tries to slip away.

Kai makes a face while his back is to her, careful not to let her see it. Sheila is a good mother, for all intents and purposes, but she's quick with discipline if she senses disrespect. It's mild to what Kai's dealt with before, but she ran a tight ship that he's careful not to rock.

"Now what happened?" she questions and holds up her hand for silence when Bonnie starts up again about strange men, witches, and Kai being a freak.

"Speak up," the Bennett matriarch commands him. Kai feels a headache coming on. He tells her everything about the visiting vampire anyway.

Bonnie's obviously in a state of disbelief listening to him, except she had witnessed Kai drop the vampire with a thought. The mundane denial she'd been raised in wars against her nature and witch's intuition. The inner conflict makes her waspish and snarky, to the point even Sheila loses her temper.

The fireplace blazes to life and the dining set levitates.

Bennett fire, Kai thinks watching Sheila watch Bonnie. Both generations of women are tense.

Instead of addressing her grandmother or the floating dinner table, Bonnie turns her attention to Kai. He's not even surprised. It's easier for her to spit vitriol at him than her beloved grandmother.

"Is this what you've been lying to me about all these years?"

There's a challenge in her eyes and a plea in her voice. Kai can't tell what she wants from him, but he gives her what he can. He ignores Sheila's warning glare and tells Bonnie the truth.

b-k

After everyone leaves the venue and they're on their way back to Grams' house, Bonnie catches Kai watching her in the rearview mirror. She looks daggers at his reflection and his eyes dart away, outside the window but soon enough fall once more on her form. This time she flicks her middle finger at him, then looks away herself.

Her dad missed her eleventh birthday party.

Maybe he's waiting at home, she tries to tell herself. It isn't a very hopeful thought. If he was at home, why wouldn't he show up to The Orchard's party venue and enjoy her party like everyone else?

Tears sting her eyes and Bonnie blinks them back rapidly. No way is she crying with Grams and Kai in the car. She doesn't want to deal with either of their reactions.

But still...not even a call? Bonnie's temper rises and she has to fake her way through smiling gratitude for her Grams' efforts. Kai says nothing, just nods at her and disappears to his room. Even Kai was pleasant enough to her to not antagonize her on her birthday.

She gets to stay up because it's not a school night, watches TV and the wall clock intermittently. When it becomes clear her father isn't going to show, she draws her knees to her chest and lets out a quiet, shuddering sob. Bonnie's not sure how long she's curled up like that before a weight rocks the couch cushion beside her. Something light and crinkling is placed on her head. She can smell Kai's weird boy smell, something pleasantly unappealing under his soap.

Bonnie almost doesn't move. But her curiosity wins out and she grips whatever he put on her head and pulls it to her lap as she straigtens up.

It's a paper crown that has "Spoiled Princess" written in pink Sharpie in Kai's neat-for-a-boy scrawl. The spikes of the crown are little fluttering tickets and Bonnie reads stuff like '2 for 1 - Kai waxes his eyebrows if Bonnie calls him hot' or 'free shot at Kai's expense' or '½ off on Kai's good hugs in exchange for never mentioning it' or - her favorite - 'Kai professes that Bonnie is better than he is at everything'. It's a coupon book. Bonnie snorts.

"It's lame," he shrugs. "But I didn't get you anything at first because you suck so..."

"Why'd you change your mind?"

"Sheila said I had to," he looks at the clock and Bonnie, somehow, just knows that's a lie.

"It's not midnight yet, Bonster," he points out. "Birthday special: I'll let you use one coupon now without redeeming it."

Bonnie stares at him. She's undecided on whether to rage at him for pitying her or to laugh that she's reached this new low. She decides to do neither. Instead she scans over the coupons, plucks the one she needs at the moment, and hands it to Kai.

The older boy looks it over quickly then hands it back over, drawing her into a tight hug. It is one of his good hugs. Rare, warm, and comforting, and laced with his slowly emerging strength. Bonnie relaxes into the foreign touch slowly, letting her weariness bear down on her. If she cries a little, it doesn't matter; they're never going to mention it.

BxK

Sentimentality and a sense of masochism made Damon stop at the bridge in the sleepy Virginian town again.

Mystic Falls was still a hole-in-the-wall, barely a blip on anyone's map. The grand return of The Comet was around the bend, bringing with it a slew of hatred and bitterness Damon had housed for the better half of a century. His grudge against Katherine Pierce had become a lifelong companion, his food, his bedmate, his liquor. Take away everything from Damon and he'd still have his hate.

His mood is dense. It settles on him like the fog he conjures and he thinks maybe killing someone would ease the hurt. It used to help. He'd find a pretty brunette and pretend she was Katherine and torture her to death. Soon enough the practice lost its appeal, but the indulgence of bloodlust was cathartic. Klaus had always encouraged it.

He sips bourbon from a silver flask said Original has gifted him. Damon had been loyal to him for decades now - since the first Great War. World War. Whatever. It had been nice to meet another vampire on the front lines, to tell his story without any edits or omissions. To miss Stefan and have someone understand that depth of grief, how it had consumed him for centuries, how of course he could never forgive the conniving devil woman that led both brothers to their respective ends.

Imagine his surprise to learn that Klaus had also had it out for Miss Pierce. Petrova. Bitch wonder. Whatever.

So Damon agreed to work for him in pursuit of Katherine. The doppelganger had been his white whale, and he'd waited patiently for the advent of a new Petrova doppelganger. Imagine this surprise when that line guided him back to his hometown.

He almost didn't come. But he's already established that he's a sentimental masochist. Damon downs the last of his bourbon, stares out at the yellow DO NOT CROSS tape and orange roadblocks that wall off the broken bridge.

The night he ripped the human doppelganger out of the car...it had been his bad. He'd wanted to see her, wanted to frighten the family, have bit of a laugh before compelling them to forget the encounter. Instead he'd frightened them right off the bridge and into the water below.

Honest to god, he almost just walked off. He'd sped to the edge and spent almost two minutes just staring at them, wondering if anyone would come by and save them. When it became clear no one was around, he had dived in to save the girl.

Klaus would probably kill him if he found out Damon was the reason he had to wait another five hundred years to break his curse.

He pulled her out of the wreckage and breathed life back into the girl. Wet eyelashes fluttered and he compelled her to find help, that an animal ran out on the bridge and her dad instinctively tried to go around, driving off the bridge. He told her to stay safe because he was coming back for her.

And now he's stuck here, waiting for Katherine to show up like a mouse to a mousetrap. Waiting to give Klaus the green light to snatch her ugly heart out of her chest and for both men to get their revenge. Waiting until the Bennett witch (witches?) can be persuaded to lift Klaus' curse. It's been so long and having the end in sight is a welcome thing. Soon it will be over and he can rest.

Damon is so tired after all.

BxK

He arrives after the kids leave for school. Sheila is tired and not in the mood for company, so she putters around inside before she finally decides to meet him. The vampire Kai described the night before is waiting on her porch swing when she steps out and Sheila pauses in her motions, facing him. He tips an imaginary hat to her.

"Morning ma'am," he greets. "I'm Damon."

The old antebellum accent he speaks with sounds completely natural on him, as at odds as it is to his appearance. Sheila studies him, her brow wrinkling in thought.

"You look like that Salvatore boy that runs the boarding house."

He chuckles, seemingly surprised.

"Zach?" he questions, accent gone. "He's my great grandson."

Sheila takes a seat in the rocking chair adjacent to him and indicates that he should continue. Damon licks his lips.

"You're not afraid of the big, bad bloodsucker?" he questions. His tone is something odd. Amused and apathetic. Bored and tempestuous. Even when he'd been hamming up the accent, he'd been both too distant and too emotional about it.

"I heard you were looking for me. Seems unlikely you'd attack if you need a Bennett witch to do your bidding."

The vampire smirks, stretching his arms out along the back of the of the swing. His leather jacket sits in his lap, black like the rest of his attire. Boot-clad feet push the swing as he tips his head back, eyes closed. The gloom in his aura matches his look. Mighty handsome as he is, those angelic looks hid a soul blackened by the worst of human emotions.

"In 1864, I was doing quite well for myself. I'd done all a good first-born southern boy was supposed to do at the time. Married well, had a boy I adored, partnered with my father in the family business, funded and fought in war I didn't believe in, and came home due to injury," here he pats his shoulder sardonically.

"The ideal Virginia gentleman, even though I hated myself for it. I never wanted to do or be any of that, but I loved my little brother more than life itself. I had few freedoms so Stefan could have them all. That's what older brothers are supposed to do, you understand.

"1864 was also a year when Mystic Falls was infested with vampires. It was quite unbeknownst to us Council members, but one of your mighty ancestors Emily had teamed up with a vamp named Katherine for one thing or another -"

"Safe harbor," Sheila interrupts. "Suspicions about Emily being a witch were high, I'm sure you're aware. Especially after she turned down Jonathan Gilbert's...employment offers. Katherine was to make sure Emily and her children made it safely to the Gemini coven in Oregon. She got the children there, by the way."

The vampire stares at her and nods slowly.

"Noted. Anyway, Emily had made these nifty daylight rings for Katherine and her friends," he waves his own through the air. "So they went undetected by the Council for a while. My own father housed Katherine as a refugee displaced by the war. It was during that time, she got her hooks in Stefan. When the Council discovered her true identity, she was captured with the other vampires with the intent of burning them all alive.

"Stefan attempted to rescue her. I attempted to stop him. But he was my brother and he fancied himself in love, and he pleaded with me to let them go. Said she was his heart…," the vampire trails off, lost in thought. "I let them go, but my father was nearby and witnessed the whole thing. He shot us both to death rather than risk the family name being tarnished. Katherine ran off, saved her own skin - and your ancestors' as well, I reckon - and I watched my brother die reaching out for a woman who didn't look back once as she left him there to rot."

Sheila is quiet. She can sense the anger brewing under his skin, but had Katherine not left the brothers, she and hers might not be here. She understands his pain, but it is what it is.

"Imagine my surprise," Damon continues. "When I wake up in transition. Emily was there and explained that Katherine had been sneaking me her blood and compelling me to forget. I was to be a surprise for Stefan. Or leverage, depending on your perspective. To convince him to transition for her. She'd wanted him to choose to be like her, so he didn't have any vampire blood in his system when he died. But in doing that, she took my choice away. She left Emily behind to die as well - or whatever they had worked out - and your ancestor offered me a monster's ring and told me what remaining options I had."

"Why did you choose to be a vampire?" Sheila inquires, curious. "You don't seem to be your kind's biggest fan."

Damon shrugs. "It is what it is," he unknowingly echoes her sentiments. "I'd already lost everything - my father had spread word Stefan and I died trying to stop Katherine's escape, so I couldn't go home. But I could have revenge."

The silence that follows is heavy. Sheila absorbs his story, filling in the gaps of his story with what she'd read in Emily's grimoire. No matter how she turned it, Katherine's role in moving Doris, Eileen, and Charles to Oregon had been fairly minimal. Emily had had back-up plans, which she wrote like Katherine had been aware of, so Sheila finds herself having a hard time condemning the man.

"And you need me for this revenge?"

Damon smiled coldly. "Why yes ma'am, I do," he replies. The accent is back.

BxK

Bonnie ignoring him isn't anything new. Neither is her bullying him or encouraging her friends to bully him.

He doesn't know what he expected. This weird combination of making him miserable and pretending he doesn't exist wasn't it though. After he drops her off for summer cheer practice, she finally deigns to look up from furiously messaging on her phone to let him know Caroline would take her to pick up her car.

When she gets out, she greets Tyler who looks after her like a hungry puppy before turning a hard gaze on Kai.

Shit.

Kai tries to pull out but another car is blocking him. He's trapped. His car door is slammed open and he's yanked outside. No magic on mundanes, he tells himself right before throwing a punch at whoever had him gripped.

It's like six on one, but he refuses to be the only one leaving with bruises, so he doesn't bother holding back his temper. Kai is six feet, one-ninety pounds but the football players are all his size or bigger, so the fight back is difficult. He makes sure to nail Lockwood in the fucking face though. Jerk.

Tanner's whistle blows and the players dissipate, leaving behind Kai and the asshole history coach. The two men eye each other before Tanner speaks.

"We have a wrestling team, you should consider trying out."

Kai frowns at him. He can't tell if that was sarcasm or a legitimate pitch, but he doesn't care. He gets in his car and drives off, angry and biting it back.

Leave it to Bonnie to punish him for telling the truth. Nevermind his good intentions.

b-k

The next time he finally sees Bonnie, it's his first day at school. She's a grade below him, but she's one of the town's three sweethearts, so everyone in nearby grades sat as close to her table as possible.

"Hi Bonnie," he greets when he's able to push to the front. A blonde-haired boy eyes him suspiciously, but Kai ignores him. Bonnie, in turn, ignores Kai.

"I wanted to say sorry for the last time we saw each other. I was really rude to you and it doesn't matter what else happened, I shouldn't have been so mean to you," Kai apologizes. Bonnie doesn't look away from her chattering friends. Kai's temper rises.

"Bonnie, listen to me!" he snaps, grabbing her wrist. Temper flaring, he forgets himself. He forgets that for all Bonnie's magic is latent, it's still there, just beneath her skin, in her blood and part of her very soul. He forgets he's a soul eater. In his anger, Kai unintentionally siphons her.

Bonnie yowls, yanking her arm away, but Kai had thrown her away at the very first taste of Bennett magic on his skin. She looks at him with betrayal, clutching her arm to her chest. Everyone is staring at them in shock.

"I-I'm sorry. I didn't - I didn't mean to, Bonnie, I'm -," Kai stammers. Bonnie interrupts.

"Go away! I hate you, just leave me alone! You freak!" At her outburst, the chatter picks up.

"Yeah, go away, freak."

"Did you see what he did to Bonnie? What a jerk."

"A monster."

Someone grabs his lunch tray and dumps the contents on him. Someone else shoves Kai off the lunch bench.

"Go away."

"We don't want you to sit here."

"Disappear, freak."

Food and wrappers are tossed at Kai, and he stumbles away, out of the cafeteria. Two lunch aids, talking to each other, stop him when they see him trying to leave. Kai says he slipped and dropped his lunch tray, and that he was going to the restroom to clean up. They let him pass.

Kai spends the rest of the lunch period quietly crying in the big stall.

BxK

She said no. Of course, she did, Damon had expected no less. Regardless, the comet is weeks away and Damon is on a mission. If Sheila won't do it, maybe her pretty little granddaughter might find incentive. He doesn't particularly care if Sheila gets the Council sniffing after his tail. He just needs the girls, the wolf boy, and Katherine, then finally, finally he can rest.

Through his ravens, Damon watches the Bennett girl and her blonde friend through cheer practice. The doppelganger isn't with them, probably still grief-stricken. They leave for the town garage and the blonde drops the little bird off. They make plans to meet at the Mystic Grill and when the blonde girl is sitting alone in her booth, Damon slides in opposite her.

"Mind if I sit here?" he croons, meeting her gaze. He watches as a familiar carnal hunger fills her face and her pupils dilate. Hook, line, and sinker.

It pays to be patient.

BxK

School starts. Kai is a senior, so his last science course is one of three electives and he chooses astronomy over psychology and forensic science. Kai's had his fill of both of those over the years. Of course though, Bonnie is fast-tracked and an honors student. They're in the same class and Mrs. Galloway partners them for the course.

Kai's still bruised up from two weeks ago, an ugly yellow settling under the bags if his eyes. Whatever. Prickwood's nose is still splinted.

They get their syllabi and look over it as Mrs. Galloway explains the year long partner project. They're supposed to track the progression of a constellation over the course of the school year and make a presentation at the end of the year of what they tracked. And of course, because it's Mrs. Galloway's class, she wants three written reports for the project, the first being a five-to-seven page partnered paper on their constellation's history and the last two being individual reflective papers on the project that they'll turn in with their final presentation.

Kai sighs internally and considers dropping the class along with the other chattering seniors. He doesn't really want to do so much work in his last year, let alone have to partner with Bonnie. But Mrs. Galloway comes by with a cup of constellation names and a warm smile, and dammit she was Kai's favorite science teacher. Physics with her had been bitchin'. Bonnie draws out their constellation and Mrs. Galloway writes down what they got.

Of course. They get Gemini.

b-k

A pretty little blonde thing opens the door when Klaus knocks. A frown mars her face.

"Who are you?" she questions, almost rudely. Niklaus is charmed.

Damon appears behind her, pulling a thin, black v-neck sweater over his damp hair. At least he seemed to be ditching his infernal jackets, Klaus muses as the younger vampire grips the girl's chin and makes her face him.

"Caroline, this is my friend, Klaus. Klaus, this is our host, Caroline. She was just about to invite you in," he compels her.

"Please come in, Klaus," Caroline says in that dreamy way compelled humans speak. Stepping inside, Klaus smiles at her and presses a kiss to the back of her hand.

"Please call me Nik," he insists and gets taken in by her immediate flush. She'd be so lovely to paint. Damon rolls his eyes.

"The Bennett Matron said no, but she has a granddaughter on the cusp of an Awakening and a ward who also appears to be a witch. If she won't do it, I'm sure they can be persuaded," Damon informs him, crossing his arms and leaning back against a wall. His eyes dart at Caroline, indicating to Klaus what he means by "persuaded".

Klaus nods, then turns to Caroline, compelling her to forget anything she might hear them say and not to mention them to anyone at all. He tells her to occupy herself and she leaves them be.

Damon is staring at him.

"What?" Klaus asks.

"She'll probably die," Damon states bluntly. "It's very likely I'll kill her at the end of all this."

Klaus scowls at his friend. "I was just being friendly, since you seem to be your usual charming self."

Damon shrugs. "She's a dead girl walking - what's the point in being pleasant? It's not like she'll remember."

The Original is over the discussion and waves a hand, telling Damon to move on. The antebellum vampire reports everything, from his findings, to his confirmations, to his tentative plans, which they work through together. Klaus' phone beeps and he answers without looking. Very few people have his number.

It's Elijah, informing him that Katherine has made contact about a Petrova doppelganger. The excitement in Damon's face is immeasurable. Klaus soon ends the call and looks over his old friend and follower. He clasps his shoulder.

"Lay low and wait for my signal. Don't give away your presence," he hands a stone beaded bracelet to Damon, who slips it in without question. "Let the witches think you left and wait for my signals. Soon, your hunt will be over."

Damon nods, striking blue eyes practically glowing. He closes them off and sighs. "Just a few more weeks," he mutters. "And it will all be over."

Klaus heart breaks a little for Damon. But Damon Salvatore the man died over a century ago. In his place is little more than a vengeance-seeking wraith. Death would better when it all ends.

BxK

It must be a year of bad luck, Bonnie muses. Maybe the town's chakras are misaligned. Maybe she should ask Grams and Kai, if they decide her worthy of any honesty.

She sighs, comforting Matt. She knows she's being harsh, but things are just so fucked up lately and she doesn't understand how two - maybe three, if her father knows - of the people she cared about more than anything else could lie to her face like that for so long. Maybe Kai, but it was unlike him. He preferred to hurt her with the truth than with lies. And he wasn't the type to use lies to protect anyone. He didn't care.

So that left her grandmother.

Bonnie almost wishes she didn't know anything. Ever since the night that weird guy showed up and she learned about vampires, and witches, and werewolves (oh my!), shit in Mystic Falls had gotten so odd over the last few weeks. And it seemed to center around her. First, Elena's parents. Then the mysterious appearance and disappearance of the vampire looking for Grams. Then Tyler ends up hitting and killing a highly cross-faded Vicki Donovan when she wandered out of nowhere to end up in front of his speeding car. Matt is having a hard time looking at his best friend, whom he both blames and doesn't blame for his sister's death. Tyler's made himself scarce, wrestling with his grief and guilt in his own way.

On top of that, Caroline has been acting weirder than usual, like all of this bad shit is just a pesky manicure that needs to be fixed and not, like, actual life and death.

And now, sitting in the police station holding a sobbing Matt, she overhears Sheriff Forbes talking to a distraught Jenna Sommers.

Elena's been missing for 24 hours. No trace of her anywhere. Her phone, her car, and her keys left behind. Kidnapping is suspected.

Bonnie wants to rage. Apparently, she has all this power, but she's never felt so helpless. Her people are falling apart and missing and lying to her and all she wants is to find a familiar place to feel safe. She thinks about calling Grams. Instead, she calls Kai.

BxK

Nervously, Katherine twists the napkin in her hand until it shreds. Her water, which she ordered for show, sweats for her in anticipation. She really can't stand Klaus. Waiting to bargain her freedom from him in a small booth isn't at all on her list of things she likes to do. But a small public diner is better than being alone with him.

A man slides into the booth seat opposite her.

"About time," she mutters, looking up. Klaus smiles.

"I would apologize for keeping a lady waiting, but alas," he indicates her. Katherine smiles tightly.

"Ha. Ha. I take it you found my information sufficient, then?"

"Indeed," Klaus nods. "My people have apprehended the girl. Consider your debt to me paid."

Debt, Katherine mentally scoffs. Choosing to live over letting herself be sacrificed for some stupid curse she had nothing to do with had put her in the Original's debt. Only a Mikaelson.

"So if I leave, you won't pursue me? No revenge chase, no take backs, nothing? Our business is done?" the vampire doppelganger checks.

"Like I said, Miss Pierce - your score with me is settled." His eyes flick over her shoulder. "With me, that is."

A cool body flops down next to her. Katherine has time to take in black hair and clothes, pale skin, and flashing blue eyes before a butter knife is rammed through her wrist and into the table below. She cries out loudly, but no one turns.

A trap. Fuck, she should've known better.

"Hey, Kat," Damon drawls. "Long time no see." He slams her head into the table several times and the last thing Katherine sees before her world goes black is cold blue eyes shifting to a warm hazel. She almost calls his name, but then she remembers.

Stefan's dead.

b-k

Bonnie can't stand her grandmother's foster son. Grams had gone out of her way to give Kai a nice birthday - taking them both to the amusement park in Whitmore, buying him a delicious mint chocolate chip ice cream cake - Kai's favorite, and gifting him with a plane ticket to Portland to visit family members who should've been taking care of him instead of Grams.

But he was ungrateful, and Bonnie can't stand him. He was turning unlucky thirteen, finally taller than her and about as sullen as can be.

His birthday is mid-April and it's warm as hell. Bonnie is sweltering in the eat, so she swallows down as much of the creamy Baskin Robbins cake as she can. Kai only picks at his. They're waiting for Kai's case worker, and Bonnie has a mouthful ready to report about her 'uncle's' living conditions. He's been extra snappish lately, escalating their usual bickering to all out brawls. He bruised her ribs, but she sprained his wrist - the same one he wore a cast on when he arrived almost five years ago. She'll lie through her teeth if it meant him finally being out of her life.

Kai's case worker finally arrives and she joins them for ice cream cake and pleasantries. She even brought a gift for Kai, a small collection of graphic novels that he must have told her he liked to read. Bonnie is itching for their interview. Anything, anything, if it meant he'll be gone and taking this uncomfortable feeling he elicits in her chest with him.

Her plan fails. His case worker is looking at her pityingly by the time Bonnie finishes her rant.

"Honey," the case worker says softly. "He can't go home to Portland. His family want him as far away from his father as possible and the one they trust with him is your grandmother. He's not going anywhere."

Bonnie snaps. "But I hate him! He's weird and quiet and mean, and he creeps me out! Why can't one of his family members move here? Why does he have to take mine?"

The case worker softens. "Bonnie," she soothes. "He's not taking away from your family, he's adding to it. Give him a chance, I'm sure you'll find that you enjoy his company more than you despise it."

The Bennett girl is stubborn. She may have no choice but to accept Kai in her life, but she refuses to enjoy his presence. The next day, she looks up abusive fathers in Portland in 1999. She finds a short newsclip about a man named Joshua Parker who killed his wife and two of his three children. None of the children's names are released so as not to reveal the survivor's identity, who was first in protective services, than the foster care system. The child's records were sealed.

Bonnie eases up on Kai. He's still a freak, but at least she has a better grasp on why. She'll let him stay. It's not like she has to like it.

BxK

Kai had picked her up from the station, drove Matt home, held her through her break down, then guided her to his room at Grams' place. The older Bennett woman is out with the search party. The Sheriff had issued a curfew for everyone seventeen and under to be home by 7 p.m., so Bonnie's sitting in Kai's room so that neither teen is alone.

He turns on his TV, leaves it on Chopped Jr, then goes downstairs to make dinner. Bonnie's hands shake. She feels cold, even bundled up in her warm PJ's under Kai's down comforter.

His room is cozy and masculine, shades of navy and light blues and soft greys and creams everywhere. Framed comic posters are lined up sharply on one wall, between two neat but overfilled bookshelves. His bed is in the corner opposite his nerd wall and his desk, the second largest furnishing in the room, is by the bed's headboard, lined under his window. There's a clean desktop computer and game system set-up on it. The TV is on the dresser between his closet door and the entrance, which are both on the wall facing across the windowed wall. There's textured fabric everywhere, down comforters, knit pillows, microplush throws, a rough carpet rug on the wood flooring - it makes the room cozy. She's never really been in here before. It was an unspoken rule between them that bedrooms were off limits. His room is kind of like a nautical watercolor, themed and clean. Bonnie smiles to herself as she realizes just how domestic Kai is.

Think of the devil - her foster uncle opens the door. He has two bowls of mac'n'cheese casserole and he hands her one before sitting at the desk and wolfing his own down. He says nothing, watching the TV as though having a red-eyed Bonnie Bennett in his room were a regular occurrence and not weird at all. Bonnie picks at her bowl - it's good, Kai's a pretty decent chef - before she sets it on the desk next to him.

Her adoptive uncle looks at her from his periphery. It's a creepy little habit he's adopted, watching her while pretending he's not watching her while she pretends to not notice. Bonnie's done with pretending.

"Kai-," she starts.

"Not hungry?" he interrupts. "I'll go wrap it for you."

Bonnie purses her lips, but remains silent when he grabs their bowls and disappears again. She can hear him cleaning up downstairs, but then it's quiet. She lowers the volume on the TV and waits. Almost three minutes pass. Nothing from downstairs. Bonnie glowers.

Did he leave?

She gets up and throws open the door only to find Kai leaning against the frame. She starts, clutching her chest. Watches him peer up through his lashes at her.

Something in her belly flutters and her pulse speeds. Kai's hot. Distantly, she was always aware of this, but it's disconcerting to push away her feelings towards him - the vast majority of them negative - to acknowledge odd truths like that.

"You leaving?" he asks her. His voice is soft in the hush surrounding them. Bonnie shakes her head.

"I thought you left. I was going to look for you," she answers just as quietly. Kai smiles sardonically. Holds up his clocked wrist.

"It's eight-thirty," he replies. Right, she thinks. The curfew. Kai straightens up and walks into the room. Too close to her personal space and she steps back at an angle. He follows. Bonnie stops when her knees brush the bed. Kai stops when his chest brushes hers. He reaches out and Bonnie closes her eyes.

"I'll scream," she whispers. Kai's hands cup her face and Bonnie presses her cheeks to them. They're warm and large and a port in the recent crazy. She's feels safe, with Kai of all people.

"As loud as you can," he agrees. His thumbs rub at her erratic pulse. Bonnie's breaths come in ragged and heavy, loud in the air.

"I'll hurt you," she mutters, finally looking at him. His eyes are dark and focused. Whatever he sees on her face must encourage him because he brings them closer. She doesn't try to stop him. His lips brush hers, teasing, when he whispers back.

"I'll like it."

b-k

Jason had buried his sister-in-law, his niece, and one nephew two days after he sent the other nephew to Virginia for safety. Kai's visiting for his thirteenth birthday and the Supreme had wanted to see the coven members he failed before picking up the one he won't from the airport.

Three pristine headstones look up at him, the two smaller ones with dates that break his heart. 1993-1999. 1991-1999.

Joey hadn't even made it to six yet, dying a few months short of that birthday. Josette barely made it to eight. And the boy who shared her birthday? Jason can only hope he has many birthdays to come.

Sheila's calls had alarmed him. Kai was acting up, skipping therapy, flushing his meds, contemplating suicide. He was fighting and being bullied, one of the perpetrators being Sheila's granddaughter no less, although Kai never explicitly ratted her out. Sheila intervened when she could, forced them to spend time together, but fixing that relationship was between the kids.

Kai had a particular fascination with death and death mythology lately. It might have been a phase or it might be serious suicidal ideation. Either way, Jason and Sheila split the cost of a roundtrip ticket for Kai, so that the Supreme could spend time with his favorite nephew.

Jason picks Kai up and they go shopping first, because none of the clothes Kai has really suits his personality. Then they hit up Voodoo Doughnut and a Trail Blazers game and Jason relaxes when he feels the gloom and doom in Kai's aura lift.

"What about girls?" he asks when Kai finishes telling him about what he likes about Mystic Falls. His nephew's face falls.

"Or boys!" Jason rushes to assure him. He didn't think Kai was gay, but it's better not to assume anything. "Or whomever you like! I don't care! I mean, I care, but you know in support, not because I think anything's wrong with you or-," he's rambling, but it's okay. Kai's having an uproarious laugh at his expense.

"I like a girl," Kai says, still chuckling. His face falls. "She doesn't like me though. Pretty sure she hates me, actually."

Jason looks over Kai, feels out his aura. It clicks.

"Oh damn, kiddo," he says. Kai grimaces. "Is that why you never try to get Bonnie in trouble?"

Kai frowns. "No, it's because I'm not a snitch."

Jason stares. Kai shrugs. "At least when she hates me, I'm on her mind. And she's weirdly possessive about me. It's better than her not caring."

That….that is fucked up. Love isn't supposed to be like that, let alone someone's first love. Jason says as much. Kai shrugs again.

"I have her," he says. "It's better than being Tyler Lockwood, who does everything she says in hopes she'll finally do something about his boner only to be disappointed every time she doesn't even notice. I'm in her and she hates it, but I'm there. It's better than every other guy who likes her, but doesn't even ping on her radar. At least she sees me and thinks about me."

Kai shoves another doughnut in his mouth and Jason sighs, letting the subject drop. It'll either change for the better or get worse until it dies. He just hopes it doesn't leave either child too scarred.

BxK

Bonnie's mouth is painful on his and their embrace goes from warm to hot, and she's wet under him, then wet surrounding him. He has to slow down, first for safety (That safe driving slogan, "better safe than sorry" plays in his head when he slides a condom on.), then for consideration, because he hadn't realized popular, beautiful Bonnie Bennett had made it to her junior year of high school without letting anyone have her like this. She clings to him and his kisses soften from bruising to comforting when her tears come. He's not small, and he never wished he was, but maybe she wouldn't be in so much pain if he had been. He rubs her back and holds her and when she wraps her legs around his waist and encourages him, he feels like he's finally come home.

It's good. Not great, but Kai's nervous and Bonnie's never done it before. He makes sure she cums. Touches her and licks her until she screams, just like she told him she would. Just like he encouraged her to. When they finish, he discards the bloodied condom and offers to run her bath. She shakes her head and holds him instead. Kai traces shapes on her back and closes his eyes.

"What's going to happen?" she says into the dark.

"We'll be safe," he replies. She shifts, sitting up. Naked flesh moves on naked flesh and Kai's cock stirs awake again.

"How do you know?" Her green eyes glow in the dark like a cat's and he strokes down her dark curls. The sight of her like this makes him ache. Kai's hated and loved Bonnie in equal measure for most of his life. He has no idea if this is her using him for comfort or her finally giving in to their weird chemistry now that she fears she might lose the people she loves.

He almost doesn't want to know. He certainly doesn't want to think about it.

So he tells her about his coven in Portland instead.

BxK

When Elena comes to, she has no idea where she is or how she got there. The house is unfamiliar, but nicely furnished and clean, if not obviously abandoned. Her head throbs and she assumes that's the reason for absent memories. Slowly, the brunette sits up and looks around. She tells herself to stay calm even as horror stories about human sex trafficking and slave trades come to mind. Checking her limbs and body over, Elena is surprised to learn that she's relatively uninjured and unchained.

Another girl with dark hair is slumped over in the corner. She's looks like a similar height and build to Elena, reinforcing the girl's thoughts of human trafficking. Even her hair shade is very close Elena's own chestnut locks, the only difference being that the girl's is curly. Unlike Elena, she is chained up. Maybe she fought. If Elena can help her get out of her chains, maybe they can work together to get free.

Looking around, Elena quietly makes her way across the room to the other girl. She's a few feet away when a voice rings out.

"Ah, ah, ah! I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Elena starts, whirling around. A tall, dark-haired man with piercing blue eyes is sitting on a chair Elena is one hundred and ten percent sure was empty just seconds ago. He looks comfortable like, he's been there for a while.

He cocks a brow at her. "She bites," he informs her nodding at the form behind her.

"Fuck you, Damon," a woman's voice replies behind Elena.

It sends a shiver through her body. It's eerily similar to her own and Elena recalls the obvious similarities she noted earlier. She whirls around and is nearly floored.

The woman behind her...looks exactly like her. Doe-eyes meet doe-eyes, one set surprised and the other mocking. It's like looking at a mirror. Or an identical twin. Except Elena didn't have a twin.

The woman mirrors Elena's dumbstruck face. "Oh, poor girl. Not only are you not as pretty as me, you're dumb and mute too."

Elena shakes her head and steps back, looking between the two dark-haired strangers.

"What the hell is going on?" she demands. The face-stealer grimaces.

"Not so loud," she rebukes. "And you're a human sacrifice. Welcome to the not-so-glamorous life of a Petrova doppelganger. My advice is to go vampire and not look back."

"Because that worked out so well for you, right, Kitty Kat?" At he man speaks up and stands. He moves to where Elena is and grips her elbow. She tries to pull away, but he seems unmoved, merely tightening his grip and staring at her unnervingly. His grip becomes blistering painful and Elena cries out, falling to her knees as she tries to get away. She hears the chains rattle behind her.

"She's not me, asshole. I'm right here. If you want your revenge so bad, meet your maker like a man and stop picking on little girls."

Damon lets Elena go, turning his icy gaze to her... doppelganger?

"Hush, Kitty Kat. No need to act like a jealous old crone," he sneers. Katherine smirks.

"No need to act like a jilted lover. So what Stefan chose me over you? Your brother was a man grown, not your child or your wife. You already had one of each, but apparently they didn't occupy you like they should've."

Damon's face grows hard, dark veins filtering onto his face. The chains rattle again as Kat stands.

"You should act like your doppelganger, Katherine, and keep your mouth shut." He smiles and it's not friendly. "You'll both be dead soon anyway."

With that, there's a rush of air, and he's gone. The doppelgangers stare at each other. Katherine tugs at the chains but they merely creak in protest. Steam rises from where they press her skin and the woman hisses.

"I don't suppose you can grab me stiff drink, can you?" she asks Elena. The younger doppelganger just stares and with a shrug, looks for a kitchen.

BxK

"Oh my god, I'm a South Park Canadian," Bonnie says, pulling her sweatshirt back on. Kai is tugging back on his own shirt, hiding away that weird-looking birthmark Bonnie always forgot he had

"What?" Kai questions, amused. Bonnie shrugs.

"I'm an uncle fucker," Bonnie smirks at him. Kai lets out a shocked chuckle.

"What?! I'm not your uncle," he laughs. He's beautiful, but she is stupidly, stupidly disgusted with herself. Why, she's not sure yet. She strokes his hair and kisses his cheek.

"I don't know...my grandmother adopted you. For all intents and purposes, you're my mom's white little brother."

Kai laughs again, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her between his legs where he's sitting on the edge of his bed. He smiles up at her.

"I'm fostered, not adopted," he corrects. "Therefore, not your white uncle or anything. No incest here, Bonster."

She starts at the nickname. He used to call her that when he would catch her crying over her dad choosing to work on holidays than spend time with her. He rarely calls her that, and it's always said in soft tones of comfort, never used in moments when she's dead certain he probably wants to kill her.

"Well damn," she teases. "There goes that forbidden factor." Kai laughs again, then pulls her back on the bed, spinning so that he's on top of her. His hands nestle beneath her shirt, playing with her belly button.

He kisses up the column of her neck. "Still very forbidden, lover." He nibbled at her ear. "Sheila would probably kill me for defiling you."

Bonnie snorts, but it's like Kai's words were a summoning. The front door slams open and Grams is shouting her name. Both Bonnie's and Kai's eyes widen comically and Kai practically launches himself into his desk chair and grapples for the remote to turn the TV on. They both hear Grams start up the stairs and Bonnie wraps herself up in one of Kai's many blankets and pretends to be immersed in Tony Stark's misadventures.

Kai's door bangs open and both teens sit up with a jump, not even faking their startle. Sheila's hands go to her hips.

"You two deaf?" she demands. "And since when are you hanging out in each other's rooms? With the door closed?"

Kai stares at her, convincingly innocent. If Bonnie didn't know better, she'd believe his next words. "We're just watching a movie. Waiting to hear news."

Sheila snorts. "Mhmmm. And I'm Barbra Streisand. Both of you get your tails downstairs. There's much to discuss."

Grams turns sharply down the hall and Bonnie and Kai glance at each other before following.

In the kitchen, Grams is heating herself up some of Kai's casserole. Her back is tense and Bonnie can see the weariness that lines her body. A bad feeling settles in the girl's bowels.

"Grams?" She ventures. "What's going on?"

Sheila sighs and turns around. "You eat already?" she asks them. Kai says yes and Bonnie shrugs, and Grams nods like this was about what she expected.

"Sit down," she commands. When they're seated, she crosses her arm and states matter-of-factly. "We've found that along with Elena, Tyler Lockwood and Caroline Forbes are also missing. Since all of the appear to be friends, at first it's suspected they've run away together. But there was blood found in Tyler's house that matched his DNA, indicating a struggle. Caroline went missing on her way home from the mall in Talon Falls. Her car was found in the parking lot."

Grams keeps talking, but her voice is drowned out by a loud ringing in Bonnie's ears. Her breaths come in gasps. Her friends are missing. Her friends are missing. Her friends are missing. The room is too light, then too dark and Bonnie feels clammy and cold. She grips the table in front of her. A sharp slap to her face snaps her out of it.

Bonnie rubs her cheek as Grams lowers her hand.

"You okay, sugar pie? I wasn't trying to alarm you, but I needed you to know the truth. Have you noticed anything strange going on lately?" Grams asks her.

Bonnie shakes her head. "No," she states, her voice cracking. Her face crumples into tears.

This is too much. First, the uncovering of the supernatural, now her friends dying or disappearing left and right. She's never felt so powerless. The afterglow from her time with Kai fades. The self-disgust from earlier settles. She was letting Kai fuck her while her friends were going missing. How could she be so selfish like that, seeking out happiness from a guy she didn't even know how she felt about when her friends' futures became uncertain? Her distress overwhelms her and she feels hot, like fire was boiling in her veins.

Strong arms wrap around her. "You need to calm down, Bonnie," Kai's voice rumbles by her ear. "It's not your fault, okay? I understand, but you need to calm down before you burn the house down."

His words don't make sense, but when Bonnie looks up with teary eyes, she sees her grandmother frantically waving her arms over flames that keep popping up.

"Hold it together, Bonnie!" she calls out.

Kai grabs her face and soothes down her hair. "I'm going to have to siphon you if you don't calm down, Bonster. Deep breaths okay? Don't let your emotions overwhelm you."

Listening to his words, Bonnie let's herself be calmed. The flames die down. The young witch looks around the charred kitchen.

"I did that?" she whispers. Kai smiles softly and nods.

"Happy Awakening, Bonnie. Let's figure out how to save your friends."

BxK

Greta arranges the casting circle in the field and spells the occupants asleep. Damon dumps Katherine - the vampire, the Lockwood boy - the werewolf, and Elena - the doppelganger in the cages where Greta indicates they should go.

"Bennett blood needs to be spilled from the eastern end, where the comet will enter the Gemini constellation," she informs Damon. When he looks at her blankly, she sighs and a flaming 'X' chars the ground several feet from them.

"Over there," she tells him. Damon grins and salutes, then takes a moment to look around. The three main ingredients for the "sun and moon curse", all trussed up and ready to die. How beautiful.

He can hear Caroline crying as Klaus gently guides her back to the field. Damon frowns at that. Klaus had taken a shining the girl, endeavoring to paint a billion portraits of her in their free time. The Original often compelled her to spend time with him and listen to his old man droning. It's weird, Klaus's sudden fixation with baby Barbie, even to Damon. But to each his own. Damon doesn't know and doesn't want to know what the hell is up with that.

Movement catches his eye and Damon turns to look. The human doppelganger is stirring. She's been eerily calm about this whole ordeal, taking to the supernatural like a duck to water. It's nothing at all like Katherine, reminding Damon of his brother's calm disposition and his widowed wife's faithful practicality. Her dark eyes meet his light ones. Warm earth to winter sky.

They study each other in silence, before she breaks it.

"Do you think this will make you happy?" Elena inquires. Damon shrugs.

"It doesn't have to. It just has to be over. I get revenge on Katherine by handing her over to die in away she never wanted to. Klaus gets to break his curse. Klaus compels me to forget and I get to rest."

"To die."

"Indeed," Damon shrugs. "I wanted revenge and now it's here. What more after that? I never wanted to be a vampire."

Elena's somber face twists him with guilt and he glares at her.

"Maybe you should learn to live again," she said. "Save yourself like you saved me that night on Wickery Bridge."

Damon huffs a laugh. "You know I caused that accident, right? I didn't save you out of guilt or some hero complex. I did it because letting you die then would be an inconvenience."

Elena's conviction seems to falter, but then Damon watches her literally arm herself with determination.

"You're not a bad person," she insists. "And you can't convince me otherwise. I know what it looks like when grief kills who you are inside. To feel like the walking dead."

Damon turns his back to her and closes his eyes, but he's a vampire. He has super hearing.

"And I know that grief can be overcome. Maybe not now or tomorrow, but someday, you'll feel alive again and you can only do that if you keep trying."

Damon opens his eyes. "What do you know?" he jeers lightly. "You're dying young."

BxK

Shortly after her meltdown, Bonnie's phone rings and she hears Caroline's desperate voice pleading in her ear.

"Don't come Bonnie okay, they have Tyler and Elena and they want you to do something weird, please Bonnie don't come, they're gonna kill us, just call my mom."

The phone gets taken away, but she hears Caroline scream something about the woods and Bonnie writes that down for Grams to see. Kai grabs her hand when another voice, male and British, fills her ear.

"Nonsense, love. Caroline will live so long as you're willing to play your part, miss Bennett. All you need to do is prick your finger and recite some Latin. Very easy."

"Who is this?" Bonnie asks. "You don't sound like that other guy."

The man chuckles. "My apologies, darling. My name is Niklaus Mikaelson. 'That other guy' was my associate, Damon. He can be a little hard to like, I will admit. But he was only acting on my behalf. I need a Bennett witch for a favor, and I promise you handsome compensation."

"Like my friends back home safe?"

"As many as possible, darling," he replies. "But none at all if you or grandmother refuse compliance."

Kai gets up and grabs his phone. He's texting someone furiously, listening as closely as he can to their conversation. He nods at Bonnie, backed by her Grams' nod. Bonnie takes a breath.

"Okay," she tells him. "I'll be there. You're in the woods?"

Klaus hums his agreement. "In a lovely little meadow near the falls. I'm sure you're aware."

At Bonnie's quiet "yeah" he continues. "And I'm sure there's no need to tell you what will happen to any interlopers you bring along."

He ends the call and Bonnie looks between the more experienced witches in her family.

"Who's Niklaus Mikaelson?" she asks them.

Grams is eyeing the liquor cabinet. "Bad news," she replies. "A very old vampire, one of the first."

"An Original," Kai said. He sounds excited. "I texted my uncle and asked him what an Original would need a doppelganger and a Bennett witch. He wants to break the hybrid curse!"

Both women look at him, unable to comprehend his excitement, or in Bonnie's case, what the hell he was even talking about. He smiles.

"It's enough for a powerful coven to run intervention. Like say, the Gemini Coven." He turns to Bonnie.

"Let my coven stop the beasts. We're going to save your friends."

BxK

The Original looks up when the Bennett girl and her grandmother step into the clearing. Damon comes to stand beside him and looks over the women.

"No Prince Charming tonight?" he presses.

"Your friend said no interlopers," the younger one speaks up, glaring at Damon. He glares back.

"And you didn't even consider being non-compliant? Not to save your best friends?" The raven-haired vampire demands. This time the older Bennett woman smiles.

"Have you considered that we don't need them?"

Damon's hackles, which had been raised all night, appear to settle.

"Touché," he concedes and steps back.

Niklaus smirks at the exchange, amused. He nods to the Bennett witches.

"Ladies," he greets. "This way if you will."

Bonnie glares at him, but follows to where he leads them. It is Sheila who takes the spellbook from him, reading over the incantation. She looks at him sharply.

"You do know what you're asking, don't you?" she queries.

"Of course," Klaus replies. "And I understand the risk you're undertaking. I promise to reward you well."

Sheila scoffs, shaking her head but she turns to Bonnie and guides her through the beginnings of the incantation. Klaus watches them, puzzled, but goes to take his place where Damon is holding the human doppelganger.

"This is too easy," Damon voices his thoughts. Klaus nods, agreeing. But magic is heavy in the air and it's affecting him like it should, so he decides to accept this lucky streak for the time being.

"We will watch," he tells Damon. "And should they betray us, we will extract the price in their blood."

Damon nods, still appearing tense and Elena stares after him pleadingly as he passes her along to Klaus.

"Please, don't do this," she pleads, but Damon is stone tonight. His attention is focused on the older doppelganger.

He's barely focused on the younger one when he replies, "I have to."

Klaus grins down reassuringly to Elena. "It's just a little bite, Elena. You'll barely feel it."

The magic is rough inside his body. The Bennett's reach the first crescendo and there's a cry from where Damon rips out Katherine's heart. There had been a brief exchange between them, but Klaus was too preoccupied to take notice of the context.

The next crescendo comes and Greta raises her knife to sacrifice the werewolf. As it descends, Klaus's eyes close and he leans forward fangs extended for the last influx of magic. He can feel the chains on his inner beast being shredded and the world narrows to Elena's neck and the magic filtering his blood. The final crescendo hits and he bites into the doppelganger, who tries to flinch away.

But his body is breaking apart and coming back together all at once, so he doesn't notice Damon's warning cry. Not until an ash-covered dagger is jammed in his back. Damon is rushing towards him, but as Klaus falls, he sees the other vampire fall to his knees, a magic whip putting bloody stripes down his back.

Klaus looks up to see Caroline, eyes teary as she releases the dagger in his ribs and grips Elena, pulling her away from him. Clutching her bloody neck, the brunette stumbles after her tall friend to the edge of the clearing, where young man ushers them both away. The desiccation takes hold and the last thing Klaus sees is a coven of witches apparating into the clear, glowing green Gemini mark overtaking the clearing.

No Prince Charming tonight? Damon had asked.

Therein lies their answer.

b-k

Joshua stares up at his little brother's projection, the little crown stealer. The Supreme fiddles with his belt then sighs, stepping back to reveal the Ascendant. Hate surges through Joshua Parker. The Ascendant in Jason's hand begins to float and disintegrate into glittery dust, fading out in a flash of golden light.

"This is Kai's," Jason informs him. "A vestigium regnans. I modified the spell. Your little abomination will hold your life in his hands. The footprint of this Ascendent will tie you to him, and when he chooses, your life will be sacrificed to fulfill whatever function he sees fit and not one moment sooner. This is your punishment."

Jason's projection begins to fade.

"Blessed be, big brother."

BxK

Two weeks later:

Elena watches the weird new dynamic between Bonnie and Kai, before the witch (and that's weird as well, to think of her best friend in those terms) breaks away from his embrace to come sit with them. Caroline is still withdrawn. Her memories from her own kidnapping had returned slowly over the past two weeks. At first Damon had merely used her as a means of food and shelter, virtually ignoring her until he needed a human touch. With Klaus, her treatment had been upgraded, but it meant posing for hours on end for paintings and listening to his mad ramblings. In their private moments, Caroline had said she can't really explain why the interactions with the Original left her so shaken, only that his attention both frightened and aroused her.

Oddly enough, both Elena and Bonnie could relate.

That night, Kai had found Caroline and somehow persuaded her to be the human to dagger Klaus (which Caroline was still oddly tight-lipped about). He then murdered the witch working for Klaus, saving Tyler, and sacrificed his father to protect the Bennett's from the blowback of the spell while his eerily young-looking uncle saw to the witches' safety. Elena didn't exactly understand the backstory of it all, but she knows it meant a lot to Bonnie. Some tide had shifted between Elena's friend and her grandmother's ward.

They have lunch. Elena's neck is still healing, but it no longer hurts to swallow or talk, which means she's ready for that spicy avocado ranch chicken wrap from the Grill. Which she's having now, because oh god, yeah. Caroline picks at her food, but she eats more than she has been. She's taking the supernatural reveal hardest, wanting nothing more than to go back to her normal life. But she can't forget and it's left her shaken to know how easily creatures that go bump in the night were willing and able to throw away her life.

She ends up leaving first, being picked up by her mom. Bonnie follows soon after, some kind of magical training she and Kai have to do now that Bonnie's magic is awakened. Elena waves after them, intending to enjoy a second wrap without judgement. It arrives quickly and as Elena takes the first huge bite, she looks up to see blue eyes watching her with mild disgust.

She has to laugh at his expression.

"You came," she greets. Damon nods, sitting opposite her.

"I did," he said. "You don't think your little friends might see this as a betrayal? I'm pretty sure Blondie would be willing stab me like she did my oldest friend."

Elena smiles. "Of course she would. You made her feel unsafe."

Damon leans forward, bracing his cheek on his hand. He's almost devastatingly handsome.

"I'm not sorry," he declares. Challenges. Elena meets it.

"Neither are we." She takes a bite of her wrap. "How's living treating you?"

It doesn't sound right through her mouthful of chicken, but Damon seems to understand, making another face at her manners. He huffs and rolls his eyes.

"You shouldn't have interfered," he chides. "You should have let the witches kill me."

"What kind of punishment is that?" Elena teases. "Death isn't redeeming. You can't make things right with anyone from the grave." She takes another bite. Damon watches her.

"I spent a century waiting to kill a woman who looked just like you," he informs her. "When she died, she thanked me for giving back her heart right before I ripped it out of her chest."

Elena stares at him and swallows her food. A lump stays in her throat. "Are you going to kill me too?"

He smiles. "Now, now. What kind of punishment is that?" He leans back.

"I think I'll stick around. Hang out with x-greats-grandson Zach. Uncle Zach?" he muses. "He looks older than me: I was only 25 when I turned. Uncle Zach."

Elena smiles. "Well in that case: Welcome to Mystic Falls, Mr. Salvatore." She holds out her hand. "I'm Elena."

"Damon," he replies after a brief hesitation, shaking her hand. "Nice to meet you."

They share a smile. Neither really notices when he doesn't let her hand go.

BxK

Kai wakes with start when someone small and cold slips into his bed. He grumbles, but shifts so that Bonnie can make herself comfortable.

"Shut up, freak," she mumbles and pulls his arm around her. Kai presses a kiss to her head. She's quiet, stilling long enough for Kai to start to drift off.

"Do you regret it?" she asks. Kai grunts, not opening his eyes.

"Killing your dad? Killing that witch?"

Kai shakes his head, burying his nose in her hair. Whatever complicated feelings he had about his dad, he doesn't regret choosing Bonnie's life over his. Joshua's death was a lighter cross to bear than his life had been - the faded vestigium regnans on his back attested to that. There was nothing holding him back from returning to Portland for good except his own choice. Jason had even employed an envoy to help train Bonnie as an act of good-will, reinforcing the lines of communication again now that the potential threat of an eternally young and angry Joshua Parker escaping was lifted.

"Them or you, Bonnie. I pick you any day," Kai replies after a beat.

"Even though I was awful to you for so long? Even though you hated me?"

Kai sighs. "I never really hated you. Just strongly disliked you. Hush before Sheila pops in to yell at us."

She back-elbows him gently. "I mean it."

"Me too," he grunts. "It doesn't matter, Bonnie. I'd still pick you, any day. Over anyone. Even Grams. Even my uncle."

Bonnie's quiet. "Why?" she chokes. He pulls her closer.

"You know why."

With a sigh, she settles to sleep. "I never really hated you either," she whispers. He understands. Kai hums, relaxing.

After a moment Bonnie sits up straight, wide-eyed and distraught.

"Oh shit," she wheezes, scrambling out of the bed. Kai sits up slowly, somewhat cranky at this point.

"What now?" he croaks. Bonnie glares at him, then snaps:

"Our first constellation report is due in astronomy tomorrow!"

BxK

End.

* * *

AN 2: Bonnie and Kai may seem OOC, but are they? What was she like pre-show and how would that Bonnie be around Kai, who always somehow brought out the worst in her? How would Kai be under more stable circumstances, still wanting and hating this girl who always challenged him? That was kind of my mindset for this AU's setting. It was loose on the high school aspect, but like I wrote in the Tumblr AN, I wanted this to focus more on who their lives are *supposed* to center around school, but gets disrupted by supernatural ish. Please read and review, this was a lot of effort and I need a little help kicking my depression hiatus. I plan to start updating/posting more, but again, the year that shall not be named was horrible to me, so I'm begging for love and attention.


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